Tag Archives: Oestvikingae

Earlier in the year the Vikings had fled from Wareham to Exeter. However morale was low amongst them, after having to exchange hostages and with Thorhelm and Fritha of the Oestvikingae away sworn to the service of the Cilternsaete. Tensions were running high inside the town, and the heathen hoard was fracturing… To alleviate some […]

An Englisc viewpoint At Wareham peace was sworn by solemn oaths from the Danes upon their holy ring, and hostages were given to Alfred the king: but the heathen proved forsworn, and fled towards Exeter. So Alfred sent for the hostages to be brought to him for hanging – for what other use is there […]

First, a quote from a surviving fragment of the Chronicle of St Albans (sadly lost at the dissolution of the monasteries…) “AD 874. Here the Great Army came into Mercia and took winter quarters at Repton. And King Burhred lead his fyrd against them, and men from the Abbey lands with them. But Burhred thought […]

Now proudly bearing the Raven Banner, the Westmen marched even futher north to continue to fight the Norwegian invaders, and to reclaim their homes on the isles off the coast of the lands of the Scots (especially Halgerd’s home on Canna). There they encountered local politics… King Causantin of Alba, ruler of the combined thrones […]

In 875 news arrived that King Harald Finehair of Norway’s fearsome warlord Jarl Rognvald had conquered the islands off the north coast of Britain, from the Orkneys to the Hebrides to Mann: the lands that many of the Westmen call home. His army had also landed in Northumbria, attempting to bring all the Vikings in […]

This summer King Alfred went out to sea with an armed fleet, and fought with seven ship-rovers, one of whom he took, and dispersed the others. With the Vikings leaderless and facing rebellions in their holdings in Northumbria and East Anglia, King Alfred of Wessex spent 875 building up his forces. This included developing a […]

At which the Vikings and Englisc fought a terrible battle, King Burhred of Mercia fled, the Vikings declared Ceolwulf King of Mercia, and the Heathen Host fractured as King Ivar died and they were torn apart by arguments. The red hand of war gripped Mercia. The Great Army seized and fortified Repton – a direct […]

At which the Vikings and Englisc both prepared for the battle to seal the fate of Mercia, and an introspective Viking leader, Ivar the Boneless, asked the assembled forces exactly what they wanted. The war season, 874. The Viking Great Army gathered at Repton in Mercia, home to the burial crypt of the Mercian kings. […]

At which the Vikings used the magic of the Kingslayer to erect a potent nithing-pole inside Burhred’s favourite hunting ground, giving him another blow to his morale and unleashing powerful spirits against him. The start of the war season, 874. It had been a decade since the death of Ragnar Loðbrók led to his sons […]

At which a small group of Vikings raided a monastery on the edge of Wessex, and stole the Kingslayer (the sword that killed the Viking King Bagsecg in one of the few battles where Englisc beat the Vikings), to weaken Mercian resolve and enable a prophecy. Early 874. Over the previous decade, the Vikings had […]

At which the Vikings harried refugees from the sack of London, as they fled up Watling Street towards the Abbey of St. Albans. Autumn 872. The great Mercian town of London had been taken by the Great Army, causing many Christian folk to flee the city. King Burhred of Mercia and King Alfred of Wessex […]

Of Ragnar of Jutland There was a man hight Ragnar, a farmer from near Fyrkat in Jutland. He was a wedded man; he had to wife Gudrun, daughter of Gunni and Sinfjotli, and sister to Ulrik of Ranrike; he had no sons but Ingibjorg was hight his daughter. Ragnar gave his daughter Ingibjorg to Halldor, […]